Wednesday, December 7, 2011

A YOUNG mum who made two false rape allegations in 10 months was jailed yesterday.
Twisted Dorothy Russell , 20, admitted falsely accusing an ex-boyfriend of raping her - while awaiting sentence for lying to police that another man had assaulted her and threatened rape.

Yesterday, she was jailed for six months after a sheriff told her that her lies had risked the freedom of innocent men and undermined real rape victims.

After the hearing, mum-of-one Russell's despairing father said he believed his daughter committed the crimes because "she likes being the centre of attention".

Cupar Sheriff Court heard how the Russell marched into the Fife town's police station in June claiming that Neil Ireland, her neighbour and ex-boyfriend, had raped her.

She had a full medical examination and forensic teams ripped apart the flat where the alleged crime took place.

Mr Ireland was held in custody for more than 12 hours until several text messages exchanged between him and Russell eventually proved his innocence.

Brian Robertson, prosecuting, told the court: "Russell had started a new relationship but still had feelings for her ex-boyfriend (Mr Ireland).

"The pair swapped texts in which sex was discussed and later met up.

"The messages confirmed that she went to the house with the specific intention to have sex.

"They had consensual sex but Russell later went to police to report she'd been raped.

"It is not clear whether it was to cover up matters from her new boyfriend, or as retribution against her old boyfriend for not wanting to restart their relationship."

When detectives found the incriminating text messages, Russell stuck to her rape story, claiming she'd only sent the messages to "wind up" Mr Ireland.

Mr Robertson said she eventually admitted that she had consented to sex and said "nothing untoward" had happened between them.

Just a month before putting Mr Ireland through hell, Russell had been found guilty of a similar offence which happened in August 2010.

On that occasion, she went to Levenmouth police station and claimed a man called Matthew Shippin had assaulted and threatened to rape her.

It is understood she was infatuated with 20-year-old Mr Shippin and fabricated the stories after he ignored her advances.

Police brought him in for questioning but released him after the accusation was proved false and charged Russell with wasting police time.

When she appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in May, her sentence was deferred for her to be of good behaviour.

Sheriff Charles Macnair told Russell she would have been imprisoned for nine months if it had not been for her early guilty plea.

He told her that changes in the attitude of the police to rape victims were "completely undermined" by false accusations, particularly when intercourse had taken place.

He said: "In your case, it was lucky there were text messages which exposed your lies.

"Without them, it is highly likely that the complainer would have been prosecuted in the High Court.

"What makes it worse is that when you committed this offence, you were on deferred sentence for an identical offence."

Russell's father, Iain, 44, said he had tried to help his daughter but she had shunned her family.

He said: "Dorothy always liked being the centre of attention.

"When she was at school, she made allegations against other pupils that ended up getting her brothers in trouble when they tried to deal with it. We tried to help and support her but she kept moving out."